Clouds cover Multan

Multan is one of the ancient cities in the world has many wonders and a beautiful history that is hidden from the eyes of the world. The city lies over central Pakistan, the weather of Multan is also somewhat active keeping in mind that it gets different sort of weather in winter, summer, spring and autumn, which are as follows;

Winter Season

• Fog
• Rainfall
• Hailstorm

• Dust storms
• Hailstorm
• Heat waves
• Monsoon rainfall

But the city is most famous for its blinding dust storms. These dust storms occur mainly in the month of May and June when temperatures starts to soar up sharply. To cool everything up, nature throws up a dust storm that drops the temperature to some extent.

The reason for being famous

Dust storm in 2006

The dust storms are itself famous in Multan as they indicate that the season of Mango will be starting. These dust storms have strong intensity, the wind speed of severe dust storms could reach 120 km/h while normally they range from 56 km/h to 69 km/h. The colour that has been observed includes red, orange and yellow. Not many storms have been reported in Multan as most media attention is confined to Lahore. Following are some of the dust storms that have been reported;

• A severe and blinding dust storm on May 12,1994 killed some 10 people while 25 people were injured.
• A thick dust storm, having a speed of 69 kilometre per hour, lashed the city on August 31, 2006.
• On May 26, 2011 a mild dust storm of 58 km/h occurred in Multan.

The sight of the rising black dusty cloud is really refreshing after a very hot summer day. It usually brings along a drop in the temperature and cooler winds which are a big relief for the people of Multan. These dust storms affect hypersensitive people who find these conditions unbearable. The dust alone is adequate to trigger an asthma attack which can be fatal. Use of mask and staying indoor during any such dust storm is strongly recommended for such people.

Mango trees are affected by these storms as most trees are uprooted while hoardings are also destroyed in these storms.

West is behind these dust storms

Dust storms in Multan as well as much of Punjab occurs due to a moving western disturbance over the northern areas of Pakistan. However unlike in winter, western disturbances in summer are much weaker than their winter relatives and due to the rising of extremely hot air from the plains of Punjab that interacts with the cooling currents moving at high altitude and hence dust storm forms.